AGRICULTURE AND TARIFF 

 REFORM.' 



CHAPTER I. 

 AN ENQUIRY. 



Depeessiox, Prices, Competitiox, Laboue. 



We tliiuk it \vill not be doiibled by auyone 

 who bas traTelled much in rural England, or 

 who has otherwise taken the trouble to make 

 careful enquiiy into the condition of the agri- 

 cultural industry, that not only is such industry 

 seriously depressed, and has been for many 

 years, but that the chief cause of the depression 

 is the lowness of prices received for the various 

 productions of the cultivator. Eor our own part 

 we can say that we have, during the last twenty 

 years or more, been in every county in England 

 on more than one occasion, and in the majority 

 of them on several occasions ; that we have come 

 across all classes of cultivators ; and that we have 

 never yet met with one who has not maintained 

 that the depression in agriculture is mainl}^ due 

 to the cause we have indicated. A visit to the 

 " market ordinary " or to those farmers who 



